Infinite Consequences
by Drake de Dross
Summary: Complete. While negotiating with his father to save his company from reprisal (post-Insurgence), Lex finds he might have made a mistake. slash,incest,mpreg
1. Something Wrong

Title: Infinite Consequences   
Author: Drake of Dross   
Spoilers: Seasons 1 & 2, especially "Insurgence"  
Goes AU after Insurgence, but does parallel the show. "Suspect" never happens because Lionel opts not take over LexCorp, but most of the other episodes follow a logical progression of slightly more and more AU aspects due to the events occuring in this story.  
Warning: incest, slash, mpreg   
Pairing: Lex/Lionel  
Summary: While negotiating with his father in the LuthorCorp vault to save his company from reprisal, Lex discovers he may have made a mistake.

* * *

"Dad." The word was spoken quietly with a note of question hanging on its end, but only the lack of its usual derision and sarcasm suggested that the speaker was feeling anything less than his normal confidence.

Lionel Luthor turned toward the voice with an obvious look of disgust. "Son." This word, also, lacked its customary faux light tones. Tonight, the word seemed synonomous with something foul that just crept out of the primorial ooze.

Lex closed the LuthorCorp office door with an audible click, giving his blind father the benefit of knowing they wouldn't be disturbed. The Kents were long since gone, and even the police and reporters had left the premises and the immediate area. Only the two Luthors remained at the scene.

A faint smell of burnt paper still hung in the air, and a cart full of charred folders appeared to be the source. Lex didn't understand how the fire had started, given the sequence of events the police eventually accepted, but he dismissed it for the time being. There were more important things at stake right now than some destroyed files. He crossed the room toward the closed vault and inspected it. On a hunch, he gave it a slight tug to see if it was actually locked again or merely shut. It pulled open about a quarter of an inch. A slight smirk danced briefly at the edge of his mouth.

"Why do you bother, Lex? You know what's in there."

Lex froze for a moment, then turned to face the older Luthor, affecting a look of innocence despite the fact that his father wouldn't be able to see it. "How would I know that, Dad?" They both knew he was the 'Mr. Green' who hired today's hostage takers, but that didn't mean he was going to admit it in so many words.

Dark anger crossed Lionel's face and, for a moment, Lex was thankful that the blind man wasn't armed. Lionel surpressed his rage with effort, though it was still visible in the way he held himself. Lex suspected his sunglasses hid further evidence of it as well. Currently, though, he was in control of himself, so Lex turned and pulled the vault door open the rest of the way.

He was impressed by the sheer volume of refined meteorite that his father had managed to collect. Stepping inside, he ran his fingers over the green bars almost reverently. He heard his father's approach but disregarded it until he felt the hand clap over his shoulder. Lionel's voice was pitched low and he could feel the man's long hair against his neck. "You know, Son, there is only one person who would want to buy the contents of this vault away from me."

They stood there for a long moment, before Lex broke the tense silence. "I suppose that makes it easy for you to figure out who did this, doesn't it?"

The older Luthor's fingers dug painfully into his shoulder, but Lex ignored that, recognizing it as a distracting tactic. "Too easy, Lex. I expected better from you."

Lex pressed his lips together, but didn't say anything. If he tried to say that he'd told the team to abort, his father would lecture him about employee control. If he tried to claim ignorance, well, that was a crime, too.

"Where is the octagon." The words took him by surprise, given that they were more command to turn it over than question.

"I don't have it," Lex snapped back.

He was turned and shoved backwards against the refined meteorite bars by his father's surprisingly strong grip. The older man stepped far into his personal space, pressing him hard enough against the meteorites to feel the individual bars through his shirt and jacket. "You must. It's not out there, it's not in here, and the police said it wasn't on any of your men. So where is it, Lex?"

_Clark_ the name flashed through his mind almost too quickly to grasp, but he wouldn't offer that unsubstantiated guess to his father even if he had proof. "Nowhere you'll find it," he said instead. He wasn't protecting Kent. He was misdirecting his father's search to the one place where he knew it wasn't: his possession.

His father was standing close enough that Lex could see the rage burning in his eyes even through the dark sunglasses. "Your unending mutiny grows irritating, Lex," Lionel all but growled through the fraying edges of his waning patience.

The next moment seemed to last forever as Lex recognized it for the critical juncture it was. His father was acting emotionally or, at least, he was on the verge of acting emotionally. The day must have been more stressful for him than the older man had let on. Lex was in control of this battle. His next move would determine whether he pushed him over that ledge or pulled him away from it. Lionel would take his revenge, but if he could goad his father into exerting violent physical control over him now, the elder Luthor would be less inclined to enforce financial control over Lex's company tomorrow. It was a trade-off Lex was willing to make. Short term indignity for long term freedom.

So Lex shifted his position very slightly. At their proximity, Lionel could surely feel Lex's jump in heart rate, but that tell would work in his favour since it would falsely suggest that Lex was at a disadvantage. He made an attempt to free himself of his father's grasp, but intentionally only managed to force the older man to move closer and hold him tighter. He wriggled more, brushing against his father's groin in a way that would seem accidental.

Then, abruptly, he stopped, as if changing tactics. It wouldn't do to get his father suspicious that this wasn't his idea. "Mutiny, Dad? Doesn't that imply you had some control over me in the first place? You don't. You can't touch me." Metaphorically, of course. The literal statement was almost laughably false.

Lionel did laugh mockingly, and Lex knew his father was going to respond literally because that was the response that would offer Lionel the greatest position of power. The older man should be able to feel, or at least smell, the sweat break out on Lex's body. His heart rate, too, continued to escalate, hopefully suggesting fear. If his father suspected fear, he'd be uncontrollable, like a shark scenting blood. That was what Lex was looking for this time. Ironically, his father did have enough respect for him that if he isounded/i nervous, it would give the game away.

"Touch you? Lex, I'm sure you've noticed, you can't escape me." Lex prayed that was false both literally and figuratively, then closed his eyes as Lionel moved in and rested his forehead against Lex's. Regulating his heart and breathing rate, because his father would expect him to try, however belatedly, to hide them, he shifted beneath his father's weight again, conspicuously shying away from intimate contact.

"Dad, don't do this," he whispered, turning his head away even as he congradulated himself for reaching the homestretch. That would be seen as weakness, and weakness had to be purged from all things Luthor.

A leg positioned itself between Lex's and he fought to get free. He told himself that if he had really wanted to, he could have, but his father was stronger than Lex would have guessed and he knew how to use the advantage that their relative positions afforded him. Next time he pushed his father into this sort of thing, he was inot/i going to do it perched at an awkward angle against an uncomfortable pile of meteorite bars. His arms were pinned and his smooth soled shoes couldn't find much purchase against the solid floor.

"Consider this a lesson, Lex."

"A lesson in what? Getting screwed over?"

Lionel smiled the way a shark would. "In a manner of speaking. You need to learn that there are some battles that you cannot win. Taking me on is one of them."

He closed the distance between their groins, and Lex was surprised to find the older man was already hard. "Oh, fuck."

Lionel chuckled, starting a slow but unmistakable rhythm through four layers of fabric. "That's the idea, Lex. It's been a while. I should thank you."

"What, no one wants to sleep with you now that you're blind?"

The pace increased with his anger. "On the contrary. I have had an increase in offers. Unfortunately, I know most of them are ugly."

"Glad to know you're not shallow." As he let his body start to respond to the friction, his father's grip on his arms loosened, and one hand slid under his shirt while the other began to unbuckle his belt. "Dad," he breathed, letting his voice sound torn between censure and need.

"Shh, let it happen, Lex."

He closed his eyes and let it happen.

He opened them again when he was breached. He stared over his father's shoulder to a slagged lump of electronics that started life as a security camera. It occurred to him that, if it was functioning, he'd have been able to get excellent blackmail material. Pity. He'd have really liked to have something this good on his father, some kind of proof that this had happened. Then it occurred to him that his father hadn't moved since taking up residence inside him. "God, Dad, do something," he gasped, and that was all the encouragement he needed.

As Lionel began thrusting in earnest, Lex felt the sharp corners of meteorite bars dig into his backside. They rubbed his skin raw, and he suspected he was bleeding in at least one place. He focused on the dead security camera to block out the pain and what his body was doing (or, more accurately, who). Evidence. He'd kill for evidence. Yes, it was his fault this was happening, but to get two positives out of it instead of just one would be a real coup.

It was in that moment that Something Very Bad happened. He wasn't entirely sure what exactly that Something was, but he saw a sudden bright flash of green and felt something inside him . . . shift. And it wasn't his father.


	2. Discovery

Title: Infinite Consequences  
Author: Drake of Dross  
Spoilers: Seasons 1 & 2, especially "Insurgence"  
Goes AU after Insurgence, but does parallel the show. "Suspect" never happens because Lionel opts not take over LexCorp, but most of the other episodes follow a logical progression of slightly more and more AU aspects due to the events occuring in this story.  
Warning: incest, slash, mpreg  
Pairing: Lex/Lionel  
Summary: While negotiating with his father in the LuthorCorp vault to save his company from reprisal, Lex discovers he may have made a mistake.

* * *

When he got back to Smallville, the first thing he did was find every mutant story the Torch ever published online. The second thing he did was break into the high school to view the Wall of Weird. As it was ridiculously early on a Sunday morning, he was in and out without seeing anyone. His research revealed that the meteor freaks all seemed to have a few factors in common.

The first was that pre-existing medical conditions tended to fix themselves. In his case, there was nothing serious. Well, nothing at all, really. His first meteor encounter had taken care of those already. Except the bald thing, but that wasn't life-threatening or even something he wanted to change anymore.

The second was powers granted to assist ambitions, for example getting thin or understanding bugs. His ambitions were to rule the world by age 30 and/or beat his father. He didn't really know what powers he might have gained toward that end. More specifically, he didn't know of any relevant abilities that would center around the abdominal area, considering that he intended to go about the whole take-over-the-world-and-dethrone-Dad thing through financial and political means.

The third and final possible factor that would affect his mutation was what he was doing at time of mutation. In this case, sex. There were a number of possibilities here. Phermones were already a documented case. But, again, that wouldn't affect his gastronomical system. Reproductive, maybe, but not - wait. Shit. Crap. No, fuck, please, no.

He almost dropped the cell phone in his panicked first attempt to pull it out of his pocket and open it. The second try worked better, and he managed to punch in the memorized phone number without shaking badly enough to enter it wrong. When the other party picked up, he was proud of how calm his voice was. "Toby, I'm going to send you a blood sample, and I need to you to tell me if the subject is pregnant."

Surely, he was wrong. He was probably able to go days without food or he produced caffeine in his gall bladder so he never had to sleep. Those would help both of his ambitions quite a bit. He didn't need evidence of what his father did to him, not this kind of evidence. But it never hurt to check facts.

And he had a really bad feeling that he was right. What he'd seen of the meteors' wish-granting abilities tended toward unfortunate affects not unlike the Monkey's Paw. You got what you wanted, but not in the way you wanted it. It probably wasn't coincidence that this mutation occurred just as he ferverently wished he could blackmail his father.

He was right.

Toby's text message, three days later, was short and to the point. "+" For all its breivity, there wasn't much room for misinterpretation, either.

His first and most urgent thought as he deleted the message was that his father must never find out. While blackmail potential did exist, it could be turned back on him far too easily. He was far more at risk if this got out than his father was. Being bald at nine and being a pregnant male were two entirely different species of freakishness.

* * *

For the first few months, the hardest part (aside from not getting killed or seriously injured by other mutants or newly discovered half-brothers) was hiding the fact that he wasn't drinking any alcohol.

The nausea was no picnic either, but that thankfully limited itself to the hours after Helen went to work and before he showed up at the Plant. That critical timing issue was made easier by a new resolve to not get out of bed until Helen was gone or come in to work until noon. The combined smells of coffee and crap were too much to take before then. Nobody really noticed. He was already notorious for not being a morning person. Besides, he was a Luthor. Luthors were allowed their little eccentricities because they owned the plant and what was anyone going to say to him anyway? Gabe's jokes didn't really count.

As much as he liked Helen, he was almost thankful when the Johns Hopkins invitation came. Under other circumstances, he would have fought to keep her, but she would have been the first person he needed to tell. The excuse to break up on her terms was an almost welcome repreive. He didn't think she would take too well to the knowledge that he'd had sex with a man while they were dating. Anger management hadn't been very effective for either of them.

As he started to notice almost negligible visible changes, he began taking entire days off. Well, not entirely off, but he worked from the mansion. He'd come in for a day, then not come in for two, until he felt his presence was sufficiently culled. If anyone from the plant needed him, they knew his phone number.

Clark was a little a harder to hide from. He'd stopped going into town after a period of increasingly fewer appearances, instead sending servants for the usual errands he had to run and opting to invite Clark to the mansion rather than seek him out at the farm or coffeeshop. Now, it was getting to the point where he wasn't comfortable getting out from behind his desk for fear of Clark noticing his extra weight. He wasn't really huge or anything; people looking at him would know he was gaining pounds, but it wasn't yet obvious iwhy/i.

Of course, it added a whole new awkwardness to their friendship when he kept a large piece of furniture between them. The first time he tried it, it took only ten minutes before Clark gave him a profoundly hurt expression and asked, "Are you mad at me for something, Lex?" Apparently, the laptop getting closed and pushed aside wasn't enough to appease him.

"Of course not, Clark," Lex assured him, but the fact that he didn't get up probably cast doubt on his words. Despite his own self-assurances that being male meant his shape would be interpreted as the unfortunate beginnings of a beer gut rather than a fetal home, Clark's mother was also pregnant, so there was a chance Clark might make an unwelcome realization.

"Then why are you avoiding me in town and how come when I come to visit iyou/i, you won't even leave your desk?"

Lex frowned at an empty mug with the Luthorcorp logo on it. He debated his options, reached the conclusion that the problem wasn't going to go away no matter how hard he wished it to, and looked back up at Clark. "It's not just you, Clark. I've decided to be a hermit." He honestly was not certain whether he was seriously trying to pass that off as the truth, or if it was merely deadpan humour. He supposed it would depend on Clark's reaction.

A look of confusion crossed the farmboy's too-expressive face. "Huh?"

Lex laughed. "A hermit, Clark. A person who has withdrawn from society and lives a solitary existence; a recluse."

"That's crazy, Lex," Clark told him, shaking his head. The bewildered half-smile on his face stated quite clearly that he obviously didn't believe him. But Clark was probably gullible enough to persuade him otherwise.

Lex met his gaze evenly and corrected his termonology with extreme seriousness, keeping his options open on whether the hermit comment was joke or lie. "I'm rich. That makes the plan ieccentric/i, not crazy."

"It's crazy," Clark reiterated. "You're not cut out to be a hermit."

Frowning, Lex slouched a little lower in his chair. He was no longer inclined to joke, but, upon second consideration, the lie didn't stand much chance. He sighed and tried anyway. "For the next five months or so, yes, I am."

Clark was starting to look concerned. "Why?"

He laughed again, but it lacked humour this time. "I've been a freak since I was nine, Clark, but even I draw the line at letting people see ithis/i mutation." He waited until he saw Clark's mouth begin to ask 'what mutation' then stood. Clark stopped talking, but understanding did not dawn on his face. He opened his mouth again, and got as far as forming the 'w' sound before Lex managed to state, "I'm pregnant, Clark."

Clark's eyes widened in surprise and what might have been horror. "Oh, God, I'm sorry, Lex."

Lex shook his head, faintly amused by his friend's response. "Not your fault, Clark. I get full responsibility for this one."

Clark looked about to protest before suddenly turning bright red and looking away. Lex almost didn't hear the mumbled question, "But doesn't it take two . . . ?"

The billionare laughed again, this a little time more genuinely. "Yeah, but, trust me, that was my fault, too."

Clark stole another glance at Lex's girth, then turned deliberatly elsewhere, as if he thought it was impolite to look. Lex decided to remove the 'temptation' and sat down again. "So, um, have you thought of names?" Clark asked the wall, as he hadn't turned to look back yet.

He was glad he'd already reclaimed his seat. Until that moment, he hadn't really thought about it. He'd been too worried about people finding out, too worried about his own medical condition. But there was going to be iconsequences/i from this. There'd be a new person in the world. A baby. A child. A person. A person with a name. He gripped his desk, overwhelmed suddenly to the point of physical dizziness. "Oh, God."

Clark looked back, and was silent for a long moment, then he ventured softly, "I know its going to be a Luthor, but naming your kid 'God' seems a little pretentious, even for your family, doesn't it?"

He figured he could be forgiven if his laughter sounded just a little hysterical. The hand on his shoulder made him tense briefly, until he recognized it as belonging to Clark. "Shh, Lex, it'll be all right," the teenager said soothingly. Lex found this absurdly hilarious. Firstly, because, no, nothing was ever going to be all right again, and secondly because Clark was sixteen, in high school, a farm boy, and currently engaged in the difficult task of reassuring Lex Luthor, CEO of LexCorp and heir of Lionel Luthor, evil bastard demon personified into human form.

Dimly, he was aware that his laughter was frightening Clark and that it was undignified to be held and rocked back and forth like an upset child. But it wasn't until Clark said something about calling his mother and reached for the phone that Lex snapped out of it. "No! No, that's not neccessary," he insisted, grabbing hold of Clark's hand and pushing the phone back down into its cradle. "I'm doing much better now, thank you." He should probably apologize for his behaviour as well, but he wasn't sure how to do it.

Clark gave him a dubious look, clearly not believing him for a second, but he gave up the idea of calling Martha. Lex relaxed back into his chair.

"Who else knows?" Clark asked carefully, watching him as if he expected Lex to break down again.

Lex shook his head. "Nobody. Toby knows isomeone/i is pregnant, but I neglected to label the blood sample I sent him. My father suspects I'm hiding something, but that goes without saying. My staff know I'm irritable and don't want them where I am. My cook knows I'm eating more than normal. But people who know this?" He waved down at his swollen stomach. "Just the two of us."

"You don't have a doctor?"

Lex smirked in amusement at Clark's worried tone, then shook his head, amusement vanishing. "Clark, in case you haven't noticed, I'm male. I can't risk the media finding out. I mean, it would be bad enough if I got a girl pregnant. But if they knew it was me that was going have the baby? That's at least one headline for being a freak, one headline for being gay, one headline for speculation on the father and commentary on my loose ways, and one headline for a Luthor being a single mom. LexCorp would drop so many points that I'd be vulnerable for a hostile takeover."

Clark sighed. "But you need a doctor. What about Helen?"

Lex shook his head. "Are you insane? I'm not bringing this to an ex-girlfriend who I was dating at the time of conception. Just don't worry about it, Clark. I'm doing my research about what to expect. People have been having babies unassisted for a long time."

"Yeah, but they were women, and some of them died." The worry was touching, but irritating.

Lex sighed. "If I promise to find a midwife I can trust will you drop it?"

He didn't look happy about it, but he did nod.

"Good." That was settled. And Clark hadn't even noticed he didn't promise.

"So. Names?" Clark asked, almost hesitatingly.

"Shit, Clark, I'm not even sure I should keep the kid. I mean, really, besides my father, can you think of anyone less likely to be a good parent?"

Clark frowned, shaking his head, "Lex," he said in a disagreeing tone, "I think you'd make a great dad." Then he grinned, "At least you know everything you shouldn't do, right? Though I could be wrong if you're really thinking of naming the kid 'Shit' or 'God'."

He probably should have thrown something softer and less breakable than the coffee mug at Clark's head, but the teenager dodged it easily enough and it shattered harmlessly on the floor behind him. Lex didn't like that mug anyway.


	3. A proposition

Title: Infinite Consequences   
Author: Drake of Dross   
Spoilers: Seasons 1 & 2, especially "Insurgence"  
Goes AU after Insurgence, but does parallel the show. "Suspect" never happens because Lionel opts not take over LexCorp, but most of the other episodes follow a logical progression of slightly more and more AU aspects due to the events occuring in this story.  
Warning: incest, slash, mpreg   
Pairing: Lex/Lionel   
Summary: While negotiating with his father in the LuthorCorp vault to save his company from reprisal, Lex discovers he may have made a mistake.

* * *

Clark's assurances aside, Lex decided he really wasn't cut out for parenting. For one thing, it wasn't until Clark had asked for names that he had even realized that this wasn't a medical condition but a precursor to a child, which definitely suggested a self-centeredness that did not speak well of his ability to parent anyone, especially not alone. And beyond that, what was the statistic about abused children becoming abusers? He couldn't risk it. If the best thing he could do for his child was give them to someone who knew what they were doing, then he'd do that. And there was one couple that fit the bill of 'perfect parents' better than anyone. 

"Come in, Mrs. Kent. I'm glad you could make it."

She took in his seated position behind his desk and apparently reached the conclusion that this was business. That his message had mentioned a 'proposition' probably helped cement that impression. She opened her mouth and hesitated only a moment before apparently deciding to stick with her normal form of address for him, "Lex . . ."

At least, he assumed that was what the hesitation was about. He didn't let her finish the rest of her thought before he slid into her brief pause. "I'm aware that you'll need to speak with your husband before you make any final decisions, and I encourage you to do so, but I wanted to run the possibility by you first to see if there was a chance it might happen. Frankly, Mrs. Kent, I'd prefer not to involve Mr. Kent if you don't think he'll agree."

She looked a little suspicious, but that was to be expected. She'd spent a long time working with his father. "I wouldn't ask you to do anything immoral, Mrs. Kent. This is just, it's personal, that's all." He cursed himself for that remark, and tried to recover from it quickly, "Mrs. Kent, I don't want you to feel any obligation to do this, but I want to make the offer in case you are willing."

She smiled slightly, almost with fondness. "Spit it out already, Lex. What's your proposal?"

He debated a few ways to ease into the subject, then decided to just say it. He glanced briefly at her own rounded midsection, estimating her to be about a month ahead of him. "I know you're expecting a new addition to your family already, but I would like for you to consider adopting my son or daughter, too."

She looked, for lack of a better term, shocked. Lowering herself onto one of the chairs that she had, until now, disregarded, she tried several times to speak before she managed it. "I'm honored, Lex, really, but I'm sure your father -"

"My father doesn't know about the baby. I'd like to keep it that way."

No, she was merely surprised before. Now, she was shocked. "Lex, he's you're father. This is -"

"Mrs. Kent," he interrupted her again, before closing his eyes, counting to three, then looking at her again. "I can't raise a child by myself. I wouldn't know where to begin. I'm single, twenty-two years old, and I'm having enough trouble running my own company. If my father knew I was facing impending parenthood, he'd either tell me to hire a nanny and have her deal with it, or try to raise the kid himself. And if there's anyone less qualified to be a parent than me, it's him. If I do nothing good in my life but keep this child away from my father, I will have earned a place in heaven."

She appeared a bit disturbed by the vehemance of his response, but he wasn't going to take any of it back. "I want my child to be happy and loved, Mrs. Kent. The best way to ensure that is to give him or her a chance to not be a Luthor. To give them a chance at being a Kent. Your husband will never accept me, but do you think he could take in an infant with Luthor genes?"

Martha thought about it, then drew in a deep breath and released it. "It's possible. I don't know how likely, but it's possible. I'll talk to him about it tonight."

Lex felt the release of tension he hadn't been aware of and smiled with genuine gratitude. "Thank you."

She stood up to leave, then hesitated. "What about Helen? She won't raise the baby?"

Lex shook his head, feeling vaguely guilty for letting Martha make assumptions about the 'mother's identity. "The other parent will not be involved at all."

She did turn to leave then, but he raised a hand and called out, "Mrs. Kent." She turned back and tilted her head in silent question. "Do know anything about being a midwife?"

A frown of mild confusion began to appear on her features as she said, "I've calved cows. Why?"

He ignored the question. "Do you have any plans four months from now?"

"Just the usual farm work and taking care of this one," she ran a hand over her own stomach. "Lex?" Her eyes narrowed, but she was still more confused than anything else.

"Try to keep your schedule flexible around that time." Though it was phrased as an order, he knew she would understand it to be request. To be perfectly frank, his tone made it dangerously close to pleading.

"Lex?" Her voice was definitely moving away from confused and approaching concern and alarm.

"I implied to Clark that I'd have a midwife on hand," he shrugged, faking indifference, "but I don't know any personally, and this isn't something I want to trust to a stranger."

"Lex?" She was passed concern and alarm, and was swiftly approaching the parental 'you're being intentionally evasive, son, and I don't like it.' He wasn't entirely sure why that made him feel pleased. He hated it when his father did that.

The urge to lift his eyebrows and give her an innocent look was irresistable so he didn't even try. He blamed it on the hormones. "Yes, Mrs. Kent?" She was now directly across the desk from him with her hand on her hips. The scowl on her face was one he was sure Clark must have seen hundreds of times. Well, he would have if he was as much a liar to his parents as he was to Lex.

"What aren't you telling me?" He wondered how much effort she had exerted to keep from calling him a 'young man'.

It occurred to him that he was enjoying taunting her way too much. He tensed to stand, but then froze, suddenly self-conscious as he had not been when showing Clark his problem. He swallowed, and met her frown with an odd nervousness he hadn't felt since his own mother was still alive. Like he was afraid of disappointing her.

She apparently sensed the change, because her expression softened, going so far as to return back to concern. "what is it, Lex?"

"I," he started, then got stuck. He backed up and restarted, "The meteor rocks," he stalled again. Her expression was slipping from mild concern to genuine fear. She was as well acquainted with Chloe's theories as Lex was. He stood. His appearance would explain his predicament far better than words at this point, particularly since his normally glib tongue appeared to have failed him. "It's not Helen that's pregnant, Mrs. Kent." Ah, there, it just needed a kick start.

A hand covered her mouth, and she gasped.

He sat back down, watching her. She recovered quickly, but he couldn't read whether his condition had lost him ground in her opinion or not. "You see why I can't trust just anyone to midwife."

"Yes," she agreed in hushed tones. Perhaps her recovery wasn't as complete as he'd given her credit for. She still sounded a little shocked.

"Only you and Clark know," he told her. Which was another way of saying, 'this is priviledged information, don't tell anyone.' She would understand that. He probably didn't even need to mention it, but it never hurt to clarify.

She nodded, effectively signing the confidentiality agreement. "Lex, when, how . . ?" She apparently lost her ability to speak, too. He was glad it wasn't just him.

"Five months ago, I made the mistake of doing intimate things in the presence of the meteorites. There was a flash of green light, and I knew I'd been affected again. I couldn't confirm how with any certainty until four days later. Given that my partner didn't ask what just happened, I assume he didn't see the flash." That, and he was blind, assuming he had still been blind at that point, but Lex wasn't going to mention that identifying feature. "I have no intention of telling him he's a father." Nor a grandfather, but it was better not to think about that too hard. And he wasn't going to go anywhere near the fact that Lucas wasn't going to be his only half-brother in a few months. God, he needed a brain scrub.

"Lex -"

"No." He couldn't remember the last time he'd cut Martha off so many times over the course of a single afternoon. "I don't care if he contributed fifty percent of the genes. It was, for all intents and purposes, a one night stand. I was using him, he was using me. There's no trust or love in that relationship. If I told him I was even capable of being knocked up, he'd use it against me somehow."

Not wanting to see disappointment or censure in her eyes at his choice of partners, he looked away. "I'm sorry that the gene pool belonging to the child I'm trying to get you to adopt is so murky." And shallow. But he wasn't going to mention that either. Even Martha would be leary about adopting someone who was 75 Lionel Luthor.

"Lex," she began, probably intending to say a trite platitude like 'Nurture over Nature' or something, but then she sighed. "I'll talk to you tomorrow after discussing this with Jonathan."

He forced a smile for her and nodded. "Thank you, Mrs. Kent."


	4. Phenotypes

Title: Infinite Consequences   
Author: Drake of Dross   
Spoilers: Seasons 1 & 2, especially "Insurgence"Goes AU after Insurgence, but does parallel the show. "Suspect" never happens because Lionel opts not take over LexCorp, but most of the other episodes follow a logical progression of slightly more and more AU aspects due to the events occuring in this story.  
Warning: incest, slash, mpreg   
Pairing: Lex/Lionel   
Summary: While negotiating with his father in the LuthorCorp vault to save his company from reprisal, Lex discovers he may have made a mistake.

* * *

"Lex! Son!" The latter call wasn't neccessary to identify the speaker. Only one person breezed into his study with such a cavalier attitude. Lex sighed and leaned back in his desk chair casually, while being careful not to let the other man see anything he shouldn't. 

"Dad. What brings you to Smallville?"

"Just making sure you're still alive and accounted for, is all," the elder Luthor said, studying Lex's face with an uncomfortable intensity. Lex wasn't sure if that was an aftereffect of having been blind, or just another tactic to unnerve him. He was inclined toward the latter.

Lex just tilted his head and smirked mockingly. "As you can see, I am. Or do you think I'm a clone?"

The intensity of the look did not lessen, and the elder Luthor's voice spoke more to himself than to Lex. "No, no, not a clone." Lex felt the disturbing instinct that his father noticed something off and was trying to put his finger on what it was. Sudden revelation appeared on the older man's face, and he nodded in self-satisfaction. His tone still managed to convey disappointment. "A proper clone would be thinner. You've put on weight, Lex. Haven't you been getting any exercise?"

Lex gave his father a dark look. Being told he was fat did nothing to improve the sour mood that the mere sight of his father had precipitated. "I doubt concern for my well being is what prompted you to fly all the way here from Metropolis."

Lionel put a hand over his heart and tried to look hurt. He managed a fair approximation. "You wound me, Lex." When Lex didn't appear impressed, he continued somewhat less melodramatically, "Honestly, son, when you stop coming to work, send Eduardo to run your household errands, and manage to frighten the entire staff into avoiding you, I begin to worry."

Raising an eyebrow archly, Lex questioned, "Why? Your spies refuse to present themselves as targets so you don't know what I'm up to anymore? I threw a mug at Clark last week. Don't think you're exempted."

"Lex, Lex, Lex, Lex, these temper tanturums don't suit you."

The act of picking up the paperweight and throwing it happened so quickly that Lex didn't recall making the conscious decision to do it. It was, no doubt, a knee-jerk reaction to the patronizing tone of voice. On the plus side, it did force his father into a strategic retreat when Lex began reaching for the bin full of fountain pens.

He expected the lecture would continue via telephone later.

His private line rang twice before he answered it. "Dad, you don't even own the plant anymore, why do you care," perhaps the better question would begin with 'how do you know' but that would be revealing that he didn't know the weak point in his security, "whether I go -"

"Lex, this is Martha," the voice on the other line interrupted.

He blinked once and felt a slight flush warm his neck. "Oh. Sorry, Mrs. Kent. I was expecting a different call."

Her voice sounded suspiciously dry as she commented, "I figured as much."

Sitting back in his chair, he swivelled around to look the bright red of his stained glass windows, made even more red by the setting sun. "May I assume by the fact that you're calling that you spoke with Mr. Kent about my proposal?"

There was a sound from her that was likely a sigh, but he couldn't interpret the thoughts behind it over the phone. Dealing with the Kents was tricky enough when doing it face-to-face, and he didn't like the added degree of uncertainty. "Yes, I did."

"'Yes', 'no', or 'needs time to think about it'?" Lex asked, hoping that she got the idea that he thought the phone lines were compromised. He didn't, not really. He checked them now on a fairly regular basis, but neither did he want to get into the habit of discussing this too openly. That, and he was setting himself up for an excuse to meet them in person.

"He has a question, and I think it's an important one." Mrs. Kent was brilliant, and he could definitely see why his father had admired her so much.

"I'm on my way over." He stood up.

"Lex," her voice stopped him from hanging up, but he didn't sit down again. "I didn't tell him every detail." He could definitely learn to love Martha Kent.

"If I need to, I'll explain when I get there," he told her, absolving her of the responsibility of telling Jonathan Kent, the quintessential smalltown farmer, that Lex was pregnant and everything else that went along with that.

He squealed to a stop in the Kent driveway fifteen minutes later, feeling irrationally accomplished by the size of the dustcloud he managed to raise. Clark had mentioned in passing once that it was a twenty minute drive from the Kent Farm to the Luthor Mansion, but Lex had yet to take longer than ten for the journey. Today's trip had been made in six, as the other seven minutes had been spent changing into a grey jogging suit and walking down to the garage.

Mrs. Kent opened the door as he climbed the first stair of the front porch, and he smiled at her in greeting. "Evening, Mrs. Kent," he said, stepping inside, "Mr. Kent, Clark." All three were standing near the door, and he was invited to follow them the few feet it took to enter the living room. Lex and Clark took the couch, Martha sat in the rocking chair, and Jonathan claimed the arm chair.

"So what's the question?" Lex asked, when it became obvious that the rather formless jogging suit did enough to hide his shape that Jonathan opted not to ask about his weight gain. Either that or ingrained manners had overruled habitual Luthor hatred.

The three Kents looked at each other and elected Martha as the spokeswoman. "Lex, your appearance," she waved toward her head to indicate she meant his baldness rather than his current predicament, "isn't exactly . . ."

"Normal?" he said the word he knew she was thinking but was too polite to say.

". . . inconspicuous." He felt a half-smirk form at the more acceptable synonym, but let her continue without reaffirming the accuracy of his own suggestion. "We wondered if maybe that was hereditary."

"Kara's ability to change into a wolf was an inherited trait," Clark added, "And that was originally meteor induced, too."

Lex looked between the three, a bad feeling beginning to form in his gut. "You think the kid will be born permanently bald." It wasn't something he had considered. Frankly, he was expecting a mini-Lionel.

"It's a possibility," Martha qualified. "Your son or daughter might still have," she hesitated, suddenly uncertain, "brown or -"

"Red," he supplied when she looked questioningly at him.

She smiled, looking only a little surprised. "- or red hair."

The married Kents exchanged a look that seemed to pass volumes but which Lex couldn't understand a single word. Jonathan's expression softened slightly, and he turned to address Lex. "We'll take a daughter regardless," he began. Sensing there was more coming, Lex did let himself smile or speak in gratitude, but merely nodded, acknowledging that half-chance acceptance of his child. "We'll take a red-haired son," he continued. Lex nodded again, but felt there was at least one combination of hair and gender coming that would not be accepted by the Kents. He braced himself. "But I cannot, in good conscience, take a brown-haired or bald Luthor boy."

Lex wanted to take comfort in the fact that brown was excluded while red was accepted, but it still hurt that a bald son would be refused. "It's the bald son that will need you most," Lex stated, feeling fairly confident that the inexplicable rejection he felt far too personally was well concealed. "He's the one with powers."

Jonathan looked the most shocked by that comment, but they all looked surprised. "Powers?" Mr. Kent repeated, sounding wary.

"I assume that if he got the baldness, he got the rest. It's nothing as spectacular as what Clark has," the three Kents looked nervously amongst themselves, but Lex ignored that, preferring to pretend that they trusted him at least a little. "But I have regenerative abilities. I don't get sick, and I heal too quickly for doctors to understand. It's not instanteous or anything, so its okay to be treated by an ambulance, but I try not to stay in a hospital overnight. During my time in Metropolis, and even here in Smallville, I've had opportunity to test my powers, and they're pretty versatile. Poison, alcohol," drugs, "head injuries, gun shots, knife stabs, cuts, bruises, heck, even asthma and allergies got cleared up without much more than minor medical attention and a few good nights sleep."

He looked at the three Kents and took a breath, "Clark and Martha know about the second ability that might affect a son, and I don't want to go into it. It's not an issue until puberty. And the last freakish aspect, discounting the bald thing which is fairly mundane compared to the rest of it, might just be coincidence, but I'm not convinced I'll ever die."

The Kents looked shocked by that pronouncement. Clark spoke first, "Lex, you nearly die every week."

It was an exaggeration, but Lex had a red marked calendar to prove it wasn't by much. Monthly was fairly accurate. "And yet I'm still here. The chances of me surviving all of those little adventures are astronomical. So either it's me that's throwing fate, or it's you. I can be convinced either way, but you keep insisting there's nothing unusual about you and I freely admit I'm a mutant at least twice over." He paused, then added as an idle afterthought, "Well, not freely. My father would probably strap me down in a lab somewhere if he realized I was anything more than bald. The pharmecutical applications of regenerative blood alone would dampen any ethical objections he might have, especially if he were already annoyed at me, which he always is. Wouldn't do his product line any good, of course, LexCorp hasn't been able to make any headway at all."

"You strapped _yourself _down in a lab somewhere?" Clark asked, horrified.

"Don't be ridiculous, Clark. I drew my own blood, put it in an unlabelled vial, brought it to my lab techs, and told them the subject was a mutant with regenerative abilities. They occassionally ask for another sample, which they get, but they don't know where it comes from."

He got the impression this still didn't sit right with the Kents. Clark continued to look disturbed, Martha excused herself to fetch some lemonade for everyone, and Jonathan frowned at him. Of course, Jonathan usually frowned at him and there were plenty of other obvious reasons for Clark to look disturbed besides a simple scientific study.

"So," Lex started, redirecting the interview to the original subject. "Given that the bald son is the one most in need of parents who understand his uniqueness, are you willing to take him as well? After raising Clark and almost adopting Ryan, you two are the most qualified." He looked up at Martha as she handed him a cool glass then at Jonathan. They looked like they'd tasted something sour. Since none of them had yet sipped their lemonade, he attributed the look to his knowledge that Ryan and Clark were anything but normal. While he could pretend they trusted him, he knew better than to believe it.

"Lex," it was Martha who spoke first. She had handed out lemonade to all three men and was reclaiming her own seat as she spoke. "A bald child, either male or female, in this town will make people think of you. Your intention in giving us your child was to make people not realize it was a Luthor, right?"

He saw where she was going with that line of questioning and he didn't like it. Not at all. But that didn't make it any less valid. He looking into his glass and swirled the lemonade around absently. "If a bald child is raised in Smallville everyone will know it's mine. My father will hear about it." But sending it outside Smallville was almost worse. In Smallville, it would be a freak, but there were other freaks here, worse freaks here. Only Smallville would understand. In Smallville, being a Luthor made one less than human far more than anything the meteors did.

The question was, was it worse to be a nameless freak elsewhere or a Luthor here? If Lex sent his bald son to be adopted elsewhere and he someday became pregnant . . . no. "Damn it, I can't protect him." He looked up at Martha, and said it again this time to her rather than to himself, "I can't protect him." He didn't know what he was asking for, but he needed her help. He needed someone's help.

She reached over and patted his knee. "We'll think of something, Lex," she promised. He wasn't sure that he believed her, but it was nice that she'd tried.


	5. Science Projects

Title: Infinite Consequences   
Author: Drake of Dross   
Spoilers: Seasons 1 & 2, especially "Insurgence"  
Goes AU after Insurgence, but does parallel the show. "Suspect" never happens because Lionel opts not take over LexCorp, but most of the other episodes follow a logical progression of slightly more and more AU aspects due to the events occuring in this story.  
Warning: incest, slash, mpreg   
Pairing: Lex/Lionel   
Summary: While negotiating with his father in the LuthorCorp vault to save his company from reprisal, Lex discovers he may have made a mistake.

* * *

"Luthor," Lex said into his office phone while still typing a few more figures into the spreadsheet he'd been working on. It was his business line, and since he wasn't anticipating a call about anything important, he expected it to be a fairly mundane conversation about either fertilizer, personnel, or accounting.

"Mr. Luthor, there's something you should know about Mutant RGN."

Lex's fingers stilled over the laptop keyboard and he sat back in his chair, tightening his grip around the phone. He kept his voice mildly curious as he asked, "What did you find?"

"The blood sample you sent last week was significantly different than the original samples. Mr. Luthor, RGN mutated again. His DNA is noticably different in the XY chromosomal pair, and there are minor changes in three other pairs. We ran a full battery of tests on the new sample. The Mutant's white blood cell count is up, blood sugar is down, and, Mr. Luthor, hormone levels are elevated far beyond the norm. Sir, we think he's pregnant."

Only long association with his father kept Lex calm. The scientist sounded disturbingly gleeful about his predicament. "Has the new mutation affected the regenerative ability?" he asked, proud of himself for how businesslike and unconcerned he sounded.

There was a slight pause on the other end. "If anything, I'd theorize that it increased. But, sir, you need to bring the Mutant in."

"To the lab?" Lex asked, traces of his incredulity seeping into his tone.

"Look, I know you're trying to protect him, but he needs medical attention. We're already under more confidentiality contracts than the average CIA spy, and Dr. Johansen was an ob/gyn before she switched to bio-research. You can protect him best by bringing him in to get a check-up."

Lex closed his eyes and ran the background checks for the two Mutant RGN researchers through his mind. Neither of them had been caught in anything unethical, and both had proven trustworthy in the months since LexCorp was founded. "I'll bring him in tomorrow morning. Does Johansen have everything she needs?"

There was the muffled sound of talking, then a woman's voice came on the line. "Mr. Luthor?"

"Dr. Johansen, do you have what you need to do a check-up on a pregnant man?"

"We haven't an ultrasound, Mr. Luthor."

Lex took a moment before responding to that. "Fax me a proposal for why you'd need one in your research, without mentioning Mutant RGN's condition, and you'll have one by morning. I don't want any mention of his pregnancy anywhere in the regeneration study documentation."

"Sir, RGN is only barely human anymore. How he reproduces -" He didn't let her finish that sentence. It was best to nip some overly scientific thoughts before they could fully form.

"Dr. Johansen, RGN is a successful person who works and interacts with other people the same as anyone else. His private life is not a xenobiological test case. Besides which, LexCorp can't market anything that would come from such a study so we're not having one. I'm bringing him in tomorrow only because Dr. Vogel said it was in his best interest to be looked at by a doctor and I doubt he trusts the local hospital."

"It is in his best interest," Johansen hurried to assure him. "The male body isn't built for carrying children. If left alone in this, RGN could very easily die."

Lex swallowed and felt a chill run down his spine. "I'll see that he and the ultrasound are there at 9:00 tomorrow."

* * *

Lex didn't knock. He owned the lab, he paid the scientists, and he funded the research. Hell, he was the research. His long black leather duster was unseasonably warm, but it did a good job of hiding his shape as he had walked in the semi-public arenas of such places as parking lots and Cadmus Labs hallways. 

Johansen was a middle-aged, slightly overweight blond woman who looked past Lex and frowned when she didn't see anyone behind him. Vogel was older still with grey hair and a closely trimmed beard. He also looked for someone to enter with Lex. He was the one who articulated the thought. "I thought the Mutant was coming this morning, Mr. Luthor."

Lex turned his back on them, removed his jacket, hung it on a wall peg, then took a deep breath and faced them again. "He's here."

They looked equal parts shocked and horrified. Neither seemed quite able to resume conversation. Uncertainty, no doubt, about whether to address him as Mr. Luthor, RGN, or Mutant.

He gestured toward what he vaguely recognized as an ultrasound. "I trust this is of adequate quality."

Johansen nodded, "Yes, it's fine, Mr. Luthor. If, if you'd take a seat?" The chair she indicated reminded him of a torture device his father had installed in the castle dungeon. This, however, did not stop him. He'd been running on bravado since he entered the lab, and he saw no reason to stop now. He sat.

He assumed that it was because, as previously noted, he owned the lab, funded the research, and paid the scientists, that she was almost deferential in unbuttoning his lavendar shirt and pushing his pants and underwear below the bulge of his stomach. "Do you know when conception took place?" she asked, doing something with the machine.

He gave the date and time.

Apparently, that level of precision wasn't expected because both scientists gave him looks he wasn't sure he wanted to interpret. Johansen moved on. "Do you know when the second mutation occurred?"

This date and time was one minute before the one previously given.

The scientists exchanged looks with each other this time. Vogel took up the questioning, "The meteorite was present?"

Lex nodded, and prayed they never learned the contents of his father's vault. "Yes, refined bars of it. I cut myself on them."

They looked at each other again. Lex was beginning to find that annoying. "Sir," Johansen said, "I don't mean to lecture, but shouldn't you, of all people, know better than to let that happen?"

Lex hoped that scowling at her didn't seem petulant under the circumstances. "Yes," he managed to grate out, "but given the situation, I was preoccupied with other things."

"Like being screwed by another man?"

Lex transferred the scowl to Vogel. "You have a problem with that?"

"N-no, Mr. Luthor."

Giving both scientists another final glare, he gestured once more at the ultrasound. "Now that we've established that the not-currently-disowned Luthor heir is not only a mutant but a bisexual mutant who is five months pregnant, can we move on?"

They moved on. The ultrasound revealed a fetus that Johansen declared was 'normal' until she saw the raised eyebrows she was getting for using that adjective. "Well, as normal as a five month fetus can be when growing inside a muta- a male." Almost as if to make up for almost calling her employer a mutant to his face, she added, "Do you want to know if it's a son or daughter, Mr. Luthor?"

He preferred being called a mutant than being reminded that he was soon going to be a father. Talking about the 'fetus' was fine, but he wished she hadn't used the terms 'son' and 'daughter'. Knowledge, however, was power, and the Kents had the right to know as early as possible. "Yes."

She smiled. "Congratulations, it's a girl."

Lex slumped in his chair. "Thank God. Does she have hair?"

"It's too soon to say for sure. I take it you didn't want a son?"

Lex shook his head, "I don't want a kid, period, but Dad'll make less fuss if he finds out about an illegitimate girl. The hypocritical bastard." Opting not to expand upon either example of his father's wild oats, Lex diverted attention back to the vessel containing the younger of them. "So do I have a clean bill of health, aside from my tenant's existance?"

"Not so fast," she said with more authority than she had exerted so far. "I want more blood work, and I want a physical examination to see if there are any visible differences between you and a human male."

A human male, not a normal male. Lex inwardly seethed, directed a deadly glare at the woman, but did not verbally argue his classification. He couldn't take the risk that she'd explain in scientific detail exactly how far from the human norm he had strayed. On the positive side, if he was almost another species now, at least inbreeding probably wouldn't be a problem.

Blood was drawn with little difficulty, and he survived the indignity of being examined without firing or threatening to kill either scientist, which he counted as an omen that he wasn't destined to become his father after all. Warning them that he knew where their families lived didn't count; that was just an exchange of already known information. They told him that he was hairless but appeared otherwise normal, he told them the addresses of Johansen's mother, Vogel's sister, Johansen's two brothers, and Vogel's grown children. Having anticipated the possible need for such details, Lex had memorized these statistics last night.

Eventually, the examination reached its conclusion. The currently favored theory was reached through the creative, if unpleasant, use of both probes and ultrasound. The mutant womb was attached to the anal canal, but was presently closed off, presumably to keep it clean. Johansen suggested that it would open when aroused and during labor. Lex suggested that she make sure she had everything she needed for a Caesarean because he wasn't going to have an entire infant exit his body via that route if it was at all avoidable.

After putting on his coat and leaving the lab, he leaned breifly against the wall just outside the door to reclaim his sense of Being A Luthor that he would need to make it back to his Porshe. From inside, he heard Johansen's voice breathe out heavily, "God."

Vogel seconded the thought, "Jesus. Luthor."

Outside, Lex smirked. He was evidently in divine company. The smile faded quickly as Johansen spoke again, "Do you think he's stable?"

Vogel answered immediately, "Luthors are born unstable." Then he apparently felt the need to qualify that slander. "Seriously though, all things considered, Lex Luthor is remarkably well-adjusted. I doubt the mutation will drive him insane violence. His father, perhaps, but not the mutation."

Lex stayed still and silent in the hall outside, barely breathing. Johansen laughed nervously. "That inspires me with unsurpassed confidence. He knows where my mother lives."

Muffled movement, then Vogel's voice, "Audrey. His reputation and future are on the line here. He doesn't trust us, but he can't afford not to. He wouldn't be a Luthor if he didn't threaten us a little. I've met his father, Audrey. By comparison, RGN was very nice about it."

"RGN?" Johansen questioned the chosen form of address even as Lex narrowed his eyes and straightened to his full height outside.

"I'm uncomfortable calling him 'Lex'," the shrug was obvious in the words, "but 'Luthor' was inexact given that I was just talking about his father." Lex relaxed and stopped composing the scientist's pink slip. Still, he didn't like being referred to by the code name that was, for months, interchangeble with the phrase 'the Mutant'. It hadn't bothered him when he was nothing more than a blood sample to them, but now it was different. Vogel and Johansen had seen him naked, examined his insides, and knew him better than anyone outside his father, the Kents, and Gabe Sullivan.

They should call him 'Lex' not 'RGN' like he was something less than human. But he hadn't made the invitation, and he wasn't about to go back inside and admit to eavesdropping.

"Well, I see now why Luthor was willing to take blood from RGN but refused to let us ever meet or run tests on him before this happened."

Vogel snorted. "No kidding."

"The next time he gets a concussion do you think he'll let us watch him heal?" Not wanting to consider the implications of that question, Lex decided it was past time for him to leave. Johansen was a bloody scientist holed away in Cadmus labs. How the hell had she heard that he got concussed about once a month?

Getting into the Porshe, he pulled away and drove at a good clip back toward the mansion. Opening his cell phone, he made a quick call and left a message when he got the answering machine. "Martha, hello. This is Lex Luthor. I won't be needing your services for that husbandry event we discussed. I know you had other obligations, so I found another veternarian." He snapped the phone closed without a goodbye.

God, first he was a science project and now he needed a vet. This pregnancy better hurry up and finish before his ego started taking these subterfuges to heart.

Remembering something else, he opened the phone again and added another message to the same answering machine. "Lex again. One other thing. The exchange student you asked about? It's a girl."


	6. Daddy Dearest

Title: Infinite Consequences   
Author: Drake of Dross   
Spoilers: Seasons 1 & 2, especially "Insurgence"  
Goes AU after Insurgence, but does parallel the show. "Suspect" never happens because Lionel opts not take over LexCorp, but most of the other episodes follow a logical progression of slightly more and more AU aspects due to the events occuring in this story.  
Warning: incest, slash, mpreg   
Pairing: Lex/Lionel   
Summary: While negotiating with his father in the LuthorCorp vault to save his company from reprisal, Lex discovers he may have made a mistake. 

Note: Alright, now in the summer between Seasons Two and Three, we're hitting almost totally alternate AU. Since Martha wasn't coming home from Lex's wedding, she wasn't involved in the rollover, so the kid didn't miscarry, so Clark wasn't driven to Red K.

* * *

Lex had the keys to his Aston Martin in hand as he walked (albeit very slowly and carefully despite the fact that he was running late for his next appointment at Cadmus) down the main stairwell of the mansion. It was taking a great deal more effort move around lately and stairs were particularly difficult. He didn't notice he wasn't alone until far too late.

"My God, Lex, what did you do to yourself?"

The instinct to startle had been trained out of him and that probably saved him from a painful tumble down the stairs. Instead, he went very still. His knuckles turned white on the rail, and adrenaline kicked into his bloodstream. Unfortunately, at nearly eight months along, flight wasn't an viable option.

"Dad."

Lex didn't look away from the stair below him, but he could hear his father's steps on the wooden floor as he moved nearer. "You look pregnant," the older Luthor observed derisively. As Lex lifted his eyes to favour the man with a dark glower, he began to realize that even with that astute diagnosis, Lionel didn't actually believe that he _was _pregnant. Lex wasn't sure he wanted to know what other explanations his father might be imagining.

Had been imagining. Lex could see in his eyes the moment he realized that his words accurately described the younger man's condition. Revulsion crossed his face. Lex looked away, not willing to risk letting his expression give away what he was feeling or thinking. He didn't turn back until he was sure his face was completely neutral.

His father had also schooled his expression to cool disinterest in the meantime. "You've done a fair job of covering up this abomination."

Lex's lips tightened, but didn't let his mask slip any further than that. He inclined his head, accepting the offered compliment while trying not to acknowledge the insult that sat couched inside it. "Thanks, Dad, that means a lot, coming from the master of cover-ups."

For a moment, Lionel's eyes flashed in anger, and Lex let the corner of his mouth flirt with a brief smirk. Unlike in past battles, however, the argument did not pick up as if this exchange didn't occur. Wheras before Lionel would just surpress the emotion and they'd continue to try get the other to lose their temper, this time he just leveled a look of disgust at Lex, turned his back on him, and started to walk away.

Frowning in confusion at the break in routine, and suspecting that something was very wrong, Lex asked, "Dad?"

Lionel stopped, his shoulders showing tension. That was further indication that something was off. Their arguments had gotten ugly before, but this one was the first that left him feeling cold. "Dad, what -"

"Get out of my house, Lex, and don't call me that again."

Lex blinked. It took him a second to realize what was happening. "No. Oh, no, Dad, you are not laying the blame for this on me. Bad enough I need to go through this. You are _not _cutting me off for something you helped create. 'Just let it happen, Lex,' that's what you told me when you had me up against that pile of refined meteorites. We both knew what those rocks can do to people, we both knew I'd been affected by them before, but we weren't thinking about that then, were we, Dad? So now my unborn daughter will also be my only sister, and your unborn daughter will also be your first grandchild. And people thought the Luthors were fucked up before this happened."

Lex wished he'd had the chance to goad his father into turning toward him before snapping out that tirade, but it had looked like he was about to leave. Lex couldn't afford to be disowned. Particularly not now. Regretably, he was now only given the older Luthor's unnaturally still backside to watch as his father processed the revelations. It would have been nice to see his face. It wasn't very often that he could shock his father.

when he felt he had allowed sufficient time to come to grips with the information, he added, "I've found a family willing to take in the girl. They think I got Helen pregnant and have sworn not to tell anyone she's mine; I've got the signed agreements to that effect in my safe. No one besides the Kents will even know a bastard Luthor ever existed. Martha's going to pass my kid and hers off as twins. Even you weren't supposed to ever know."

Slowly, Lionel turned around again and regarded him with an expression that was completely unreadable. Then, very deliberately, he nodded. "It's a good plan."

That was the first unqualifed compliment he could remember ever receiving from his father. He just wished he didn't feel like he was waiting for the other shoe to drop.

His father's mouth twisted into a poorly surpressed sneer as his gaze landed again on Lex's swollen midsection. "You realize I will disown you if the press gets wind of you new . . . creation ability."

As far as 'welcome back to the family' speeches go, it was about what Lex expected from his father. "Of course, Dad." It was the same message he'd gotten when his father discovered he did drugs or slept with guys. Just don't get caught.

Lionel's nod was sharp and businesslike. "Just so we're clear, Son."

"So I can get pregnant again as long as the press doesn't find out?" That was, perhaps, pushing it, but his feet hurt, his back ached, he was late for his check-up, he had just narrowly avoided being thrown out of his home, and he hadn't had sex since Helen left five and a half months ago. He was entitled to be irritable.

His father's lip curled but hand made a vaguely dismissive gesture. "That is entirely your business, Lex." There was a slight pause, then he added, "In the future, I will make it a point to use a condom whenever I engage in intercourse of any form to avoid this sort of problem. As your concerned father, I suggest you do the same."

Lex frowned at his father's back as he strode from the room, apparently having reached the conclusion that their discussion was over. Lex had no idea how to interpret that 'fatherly' advice. He was fairly sure it wasn't an order. What he couldn't dismiss so easily was that it might have been a promise that, if and when they had sex again, a condom would be used. Or maybe it was an apology. It was hard to say.

But just because his father had given it, with or without hidden messages, didn't mean it was bad advice. He wondered if it would look unusual if LexCorp bought Trojan. Probably.


	7. Siblings

Title: Infinite Consequences   
Author: Drake of Dross   
Spoilers: Seasons 1 & 2, especially "Insurgence", and the flashbacks in Season 3's "Memoria"  
Goes AU after Insurgence, but does parallel the show. "Suspect" never happens because Lionel opts not take over LexCorp, but most of the other episodes follow a logical progression of slightly more and more AU aspects due to the events occuring in this story.  
Warning: incest, slash, mpreg   
Pairing: Lex/Lionel   
Summary: While negotiating with his father in the LuthorCorp vault to save his company from reprisal, Lex discovers he may have made a mistake.

* * *

"Clark," Lex said in surprise as the teenager entered his study. "You're back," he added the obvious with a smile.

Clark shrugged in embarassment. "Yeah, I got as far as Metropolis then couldn't figure out what else to do. I stayed in your penthouse for two days until I ran out pizza money, then came home, I hope you don't mind."

Not having been aware Clark knew where his penthouse was, Lex raised his eyebrows in surprise, but then shrugged. "Sure, no problem. Better that you were there than staying in some shady motel. What prompted the disappearing act anyway?"

Clark looked uncomfortable and didn't meet his eyes. Ah. One of _those _kinds of incidents. Not in the mood to get lied to, Lex provided an answer for him, "Having twins on the way too much competition for the only child?"

A surprised look crossed Clark's face and he started to shake his head in instant denial. "N-" Lex could almost see him realizing the out he'd just been given. Clark started to nod, "Yeah, I guess." It would have been amusing if it weren't so pathetic.

But then Clark dropped down on the sofa beside him and sighed. "It's really weird knowing that any day now I'm going to be a big brother. And even though I _know _Mom's pregnancy was totally unplanned, I can't help but think that they're trying to replace me now that I'm not a little kid anymore." Ah. So the excuse was true, even if it wasn't the whole reason he'd run away. Lex felt a little guilty.

"And I'm not helping the issue."

Clark stole a sidelong look at Lex's stomach. "It's not your fault."

Lex rolled his eyes. "Your parents' biological kid isn't my fault but everything about this one going over to the Kent household is."

Clark rolled his eyes right back. "It's not the _adopted _kid I feel threatened by, Lex."

Not having been adopted (though sometimes he wondered if maybe that would have been better), Lex could only imagine what Clark was worried about. "I think it's normal, Clark. I felt threatened when Julian was born, too."

Clark frowned in confusion, "But you were Lionel's real son."

"You're Martha and Jonathan's real son, too, Clark. Genetics aren't everything. Take her, for example," he rested his hand on his stomach. "I'm her biological parent and I'm giving her away. I don't deserve to be called her real father. Your parents will be far more real to her than anything I could ever be even when she reaches the age when she'll be told the truth."

The teenager was silent for a little while, looking at his hands more than anything else. Finally, he asked quietly, "But you love her, right, even though you're giving her away?"

At first, Lex didn't understand why that was so obviously important to Clark, but then realization dawned before he spoke and put his foot in it. "Clark," he said, putting a hand on the other's shoulder, "I'm giving her away _because _I love her. I'm sure your biological parents felt the same way about you."

Clark slouched lower in the cushions, "I doubt it. My biological father is a bastard."

Ah. So Clark knew who his parents were. Interesting. And given the level of fresh bitterness and anger in that last sentence, Lex suspected he knew what prompted the running away, too. He spoke carefully, "Yeah, well, so's mine. If he's that bad, you're lucky he sent you away. The Kents are good people and child abuse sucks."

Clark looked at him sharply, his eyes suddenly boring into Lex as if the teenager were trying to see inside him. Lex shifted uncomfortably as the look moved down giving him the most intent once over he had ever experienced. "Your father abused you?" Clark demanded, muscles tensing as if he were planning to find Lionel Luthor and beat him up right now.

Lex laughed shortly, and shook his head, acting like that was the most ridiculous suggestion ever made. "Clark, you misunderstand. I was just saying that if your father didn't love you, then the chances that he would hurt you are very high, and it's good he gave you up for adoption. I only mentioned my father as proof that just because our genes may come from an evil bastard doesn't mean we have to be one. So don't worry about it. You've got Jonathan and Martha."

The look Clark leveled at him suggested that he suspected Lex of trying to misdirect him, but he didn't press the issue. "Does it bother you?" At Lex's look of confusion, he clarified, "Giving her up?"

Lex shook his head, and answered honestly. "No. I've very carefully avoided thinking of her as anything other than a pronoun or 'the fetus'. My mother did the same thing with Julian."

That clearly didn't fit in with the mental picture Clark had of Lex's mom. "What? Why would she do that?"

Lex shrugged, remembering only half-remembered fragments of his parents arguments though closed or cracked open doors. "She wanted an abortion, but Dad wouldn't let her get one. She thought having Julian would be bad for me." He looked away, finding the ceiling in sudden need of scrutiny. He should get someone to look at that moulding, it was starting to crack. "They argued about it a lot."

"Why did she think having a brother would be bad for you?"

Though he hadn't wanted to look at Clark and find pity on his face, Lex turned toward his friend to give him a dark look. "Because my father wanted an heir he could be proud of instead of the bald freak he was stuck with." He struggled to stand, only partially acknowledging that Clark's expression had been mostly concern. He pretended that he got up without Clark's help as he strode toward the bar. And because he was pregnant he couldn't even drink anything there. Dammit! He went to his mini-fridge instead and pulled out a bottle of Ty Nant.

"Lex, I'm sorry I brought it up."

Lex shook his head, and took a deep drought of the water. "No, it's fine, Clark. I was twelve, I'm over it." And if he was careful not to look at Clark and see his disbelief, that was his perogative. "It's just as well Mom didn't bond with him, since he died so soon after birth." He shrugged again, pretending the subject didn't bother him, pretending it wasn't his fault his brother was dead.

There was an uneasy silence between them. Lex had finished speaking, and Clark apparently didn't feel comfortable changing the subject to something lighter after that remark. Lex took pity on him and asked, "How's your mother doing?"

"Jesus, Lex, she's _huge_. Anybody who sees her isn't gonna have any trouble believing she's got twins in there. I keep expecting the kid to drop out any second. She was due four days ago." Judging by the speed with with these words spilled from Clark's mouth, he'd been wanting to say them for a while. Lex smirked at him.

"Clark, you're not calling your mom fat are you?"

For a second, his friend looked at him with a stricken look, then grinned sheepishly when he realized Lex was pulling his leg. "Don't scare me like that, I thought you were going to tell her."

"Well, y'know, Clark, we barges need to stick together."

Clark grinned, "Yeah, that's why I thought you were gonna."

Lex pulled a pen out of his shirt pocket and threw it in Clark's general direction. "Prick."

He caught it in midair, but before he could throw it back and escalate the fake fight, the phone rang. Lex picked it up before the second ring, "Luthor."

"Lex, this is Jonathan, is Clark there?" there was urgency in the farmer's voice, but no panic. Lex put him on speakerphone and looked over at his friend. "Clark's here."

"Tell him to meet us at Smallville General. Martha's in labour. We're already here."

Lex's eyes had drifted toward the phone while Jonathan spoke, but when he looked back at Clark, the teen had disappeared. "I think he's on his way, Mr. Kent."

* * *

"So," Clark said, a few days later, sprawled again on Lex's office couch. "When are you getting yours out? I feel guilty everytime Lana looks at me and asks if my other sister is still in the Metropolis ICU."

It wasn't until that moment that Lex realized the weak point in his plan. It _should _have occurred to him, given the volume of horrible lies he'd been subjected to, but he hadn't really put that together with the fact that _Clark _was going to be required to lie about the whereabout of his youngest sibling. Martha, yes, but Martha was a good liar. Clark wasn't.

"Hold that thought," Lex told him and pulled out his cell phone. He scrolled down the directory to 'RGN Lab' and pushed the call button. "Johansen, this is Luthor," he said when the other line was answered, "when is the absolute earliest the operation can take place?"

"Mr. Luthor, I realize you must be anxious to get back to-"

"Johansen, this isn't about me. This is about the kid's cover story. The woman I'm telling people she was born to gave birth four days ago. Right now, we're telling people that the younger twin is in an ICU in Metropolis, but her adoptive brother can't lie, so the sooner she gets there in reality, the better."

On the couch, Clark gave him an offended look that said 'Hey!"

"There's an ICU ready for her already?"

"Reserved, paid for, and the doctors comfortably bribed." Lex ignored the look of disapproval he was getting from Clark.

There was a pause on the other end, then grudgingly she agreed, "Fine, come into tomorrow and I'll see if it's viable enough to risk this week."

"Thank you," Lex hung up the phone, and looked at Clark. "To answer your question, sometime this week, pending doctor approval. How's Cara doing?"

Clark's slight frown turned up into an indulgent smile at the mention of his infant sister. "She's beautiful. She's got all of us wrapped around her little fingers already. Red hair, like mom's, have we told you that yet?"

Lex smirked in amusement at how far gone his friend was, "Yeah, you did."


	8. Homecoming

Title: Infinite Consequences   
Author: Drake of Dross   
Spoilers: Seasons 1 & 2  
Goes AU after Insurgence, but does parallel the show. "Suspect" never happens because Lionel opts not take over LexCorp, but most of the other episodes follow a logical progression of slightly more and more AU aspects due to the events occuring in this story.  
Warning: incest, slash, mpreg   
Pairing: Lex/Lionel   
Summary: While negotiating with his father in the LuthorCorp vault to save his company from reprisal, Lex discovers he may have made a mistake.

* * *

Laura Kent was, according to her birth certificate, three weeks old when she came home for the first time. Nine people knew she was closer to half that. Four were doctors. Two of those doctors were postnatal specialists and had been well paid to monitor an empty ICU for just over a week until a premature newborn girl was secretly flown in from Smallville and placed in the unit. That pair had no idea who the girl's parents actually were (they did know who they weren't - this infant was _not _the child of Jonathan and Martha Kent despite what was written on her chart) and, in all truth, they didn't _want _to know. Not with the Luthors involved. 

Two bio-researchers employed by LexCorp knew the exact date and time of Laura Kent's birth. They, after all, had performed the Ceasarian section themselves. While Johansen stitched Lex Luthor back together, Vogel got on a helicopter and brought the infant immediately to Metropolis General in the very small hours of a Thursday morning. The Kents received notification that everything was on schedule as soon as Johansen relented to give her patient a cell phone.

Lionel Luthor also had a fair, though somewhat less exact, idea of when Laura Kent was born. He had gotten a rather cryptic voicemail from his son telling him that 'Laura is now the Kent's concern and I'll be back at work on Tuesday.' That had been on Friday. By Sunday, Lex Luthor had broken his self-imposed exile and had been spotted in the Talon. When asked whether the boy looked in any way unusual, Lionel's spies had looked confused by the question and told him the young Luthor was bald.

Martha was not happy with Lex for returning to his normal shape so quickly. Clark reported that Lex had almost not received an invitation to Laura's homecoming party for that sin. Lex figured that Johansen and Vogel were even less happy with him for doing his return to normal in the privacy of his mansion, but only smiled self-depricatingly and told Clark that he was glad that she forgave him for being a freak. That earned him a Look.

At the party, Lex watched Laura and Cara as Jonathan and Martha carried them around introducing them to all the guests, proud parental smiles on their faces. Almost everyone there had met Cara before, but the twins together were a new experience. Laura was a lot smaller, but with her hair as red as Cara's, nobody questioned that they were related.

It wasn't until the happy parents made their way over to where Lex was sitting with Clark, Chloe, and Lana that he got his first close look at the child he had borne. Martha let Chloe hold Cara, and Jonathan moved to give Laura to Lex. Suddenly nervous, Lex backed away, hand held out wardingly in front of him, "Oh, no, Mr. Kent, let Lana hold her."

"No, go ahead, Lex," Lana encouraged, smiling at him, "I can wait."

"Hold her, Lex," Martha instructed, though she said it in such a way that other people might think it was just a reassurance rather than the order it was. She fussed over how he was supposed to hold his arms, then Jonathan lowered the infant into them.

The baby gurgled and drooled a little. She was heavier than she looked, though that wasn't really saying much. She didn't look much like her father/grandfather, which was a relief. She looked like a baby. Then she opened her eyes and reached for his chin. She had his eyes. Lex smiled at her.

"Ooh," Lana commented from the peanut gallery, "Lex just got his heart stolen."

Lex gave her a half-hearted glare and handed the baby back to Jonathan, "Here you go, sweetie, back to Daddy before Aunt Lana gets me arrested."

FIN

(Yes, _fin_. The kid's born and out of Lex's custody. A sequel is a possibility, however, so keep an eye out for it.)


End file.
